A medical journal published an anonymous essay last month by a physician recounting other doctors’ crude and sexual comments and behavior with patients during obstetric and gynecologic surgeries. From rude and disparaging remarks about a nurse’s special needs son, to joking about a patient screaming in pain because the doctor did not use enough anesthetic, political correctness […]
Read More...In a recent study of data from across the country, New Jersey hospitals ranked last in the nation for the high number of patient readmissions after discharge. As a result, the federal government penalized nearly every New Jersey hospital this year with monetary fines and reduced Medicare reimbursements. The New Jersey Spotlight report shows all N.J. hospitals – […]
Read More...Two new websites launched recently that enable patients to evaluate and compare surgeons based on information that was previously unavailable on complications rates and patient outcomes. The first site, www.surgeonratings.org, released by the nonprofit Consumers’ Checkbook/Center for the Study of Services, only lists surgeons that have had better-than-average outcomes based on an analysis of more than four […]
Read More...Many frequently blame rising healthcare costs on lawsuits and malpractice insurance. Arguments typically revolve around “defensive medicine” and cite statistics about increasing amounts of medical malpractice lawsuit payouts, and how those factors must be affecting healthcare costs across the board. The only problem is that the data doesn’t support the typical narrative – at least not in the last […]
Read More...When a doctor makes a poor decision or a hospital makes a mistake, many people in our litigious society have an immediate instinct to sue. While many Plaintiffs are looking for compensation or have legitimate expenses that need to be covered, the reality is that lawsuits can be about more than money. If a patient is injured […]
Read More...The deadly pattern of illnesses began to emerge in 2012 at hospitals in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Chicago. In each case, the culprit was a bacteria known as CRE, perhaps the most feared of superbugs, because it resists even “last defense” antibiotics and kills up to 40% of the people it infects. And in each case, investigators […]
Read More...There have been great strides in the fight to reduce patient deaths due to medial errors, but more can be done. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that hospital-acquired conditions have dropped 17 percent between 2011 and 2013, resulting in 50,000 fewer deaths and saving the industry $12 billion. According to […]
Read More...The healthcare industry has made progress in reducing medical errors over the past 15 years, but it’s not enough, according to Molly Joel Coye, M.D., chief innovation officer of UCLA Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Coye was the co-author of a seminal report named “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer […]
Read More...According to a new French study, medical errors not only profoundly affect patients, but the doctors and medical staff who made the error. “If the error affects the patient and his/her family, it will also have an impact on the caregivers involved, their colleagues, and even the entire service,” Alexandra Laurent, head of Clinical Psychology […]
Read More...Our own Medical Paralegal Corine Mogenis writes a regular piece for the South Brunswick Patch. This week’s was titled “Ebola, Enterovirus and Errors…Oh My!” This is an excerpt: Medical errors, such as that which “may” or “may not” have taken the life of Joan Rivers, are a hot topic in the news regularly. Why? Because […]
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